McColl happier with CPS share price rise

Scottish tycoon Jim McColl, who claimed in the summer that Clyde Process Solutions was being undervalued by investors, said yesterday he is more comfortable with the stock market's rating of the company.

McColl, chairman of the Aim-listed firm, mulled over a merger of the business to enlarge its size and take it to the main market.

Shares closed at 75p last night, valuing the firm at about 34 million, up from 17m in May.

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Speaking after its interim results, McColl said: "The share price is now back at a much better level. It gives us much more scope for doing deals. I'm certainly not thinking about taking it private."

CPS posted a 5 per cent fall in turnover to 36.5m against tough comparisons with the first half of last year, when revenue from a giant contract with Imperial Sugar was coming through.

Pre-tax profits fell from 3.1m to 1.7m, although 2009's figure included 900,000 in payback and interest from a ten-year-old Turkish debt.

The firm highlighted its growing order book, up from 20.5m in February to 23.3m in August.

CPS chief executive Alex Stewart said orders were coming later in the year than he had hoped but expected a busy second half.

He expected the proposed interim dividend of 0.4p to go down well with private investors and smaller institutional shareholders who had welcomed the idea at July's AGM.

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